ESA study: 40 percent of US gamers are women

Exactly who is playing video games these days? The ESA has released its 2008 …

In the midst of E3's chaos last week, the Entertainment Software Association let its annual demographic study slip out, revealing that 2/5 of gamers in the USA are women. The release itself contained information from the ESA's annual study of American households, and it revealed a wide variety of information about just who is actually playing video games these days.

The 2008 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry also revealed that the average age of gamers has gone up to 35, 65 percent of American households play video games, and there are almost twice as many women playing video games as there are teenage boys (including Circe, of WomenGamers, pictured here).

The information was collected from 1,200 households that own either a PC used for gaming and/or a game console. For those who are interested, the study is available for download straight from the ESA.